I'm an impatient person. ADHD maybe... but it goes beyond that. Sometimes I get a product idea, and I jump the gun because it feels almost physically painful to wait to validate an idea... I'd rather make a thing and have that flop than validate. Speaking of impatience... I dated a guy who, for whatever freaky reason, would call me while in the middle of playing video games, and sometimes I'd ask a question and he'd literally answer after minutes (I counted)... after slaying some monsters and collecting loot, I presume... it came to a point where my first question after answering his calls was always... "err... are you in the middle of a game?" That reeeeally tested me. Anyway, I digress.... All that said... I *have* validated product ideas in the past. It's a very short list of 5 different ways. So, let's play a game. Guess one validation method in my list, followed by whether it's a yay method or a blah method. Yay → as in this method tells you whether someone is actually interested in the product or not Blah → the opposite of yay If you get the right combo, I'll tell you the name of the book I just ordered and the one I just finished reading. Go pikachoooo PS: the dude called me tonight (we stay in touch) to say "what's up, haven't talked in a month!" then went quiet... 🤣

Here's something I tried recently that didn't work: I get bored easily, so I keep trying new things to entertain myself. Recently, I tried it with the Write Without AI workshop. I sold it in two phases back-to-back: Early bird (cheaper) > then regular price. I thought most people would get it at the cheaper early bird price. I had zero buyers 🙃 All of the sales came AFTER the price increase. I tried a similar scheme last year, when I launched my Email List-Building OS, and the exact same thing happened then, too. I thought it was a fluke then. But now it's become a pattern. So this experiment ends here, I guess. No more early bird pricing. Anyway, in case you followed the promo... word of advice... don't do what I did.

What's the point, guys? Email marketing is dead. Time to wrap things up. Who's with me? . . . This was an April 1 thing ppl, don't actually take it seriously 😒

This was my 3rd or 4th mixer event I attended, hosted by the awesome @Lex Roman. For those of you who don't know... Lex Roman is one of the coolest people I know doing a super cool thing called "Revenue Rulebreaker," and they do these quarterly mixer events that are just phenomenal. They basically partner you up with people who may be a good fit for you to connect and collaborate with for cross-promotions and JV partnerships. You don't have to do the work... Lex does it for you. Today's mixer was by far one of the biggest, with some 90 people in it, and yet, thanks to Lex's careful coordination, it still felt like a small enough event with small breakout rooms. We were allowed to bring guests today, and I invited @John Bejakovic, and it was awesome and cool and perfect, and I think all of you should be a Legend. If you want, you can join up here and get a cool little discount on top of what is already a very affordable yearly membership: https://www.thesideblogger.com/lexroman

Many, many years ago, I was reading "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami, and in it, there's an exchange between our very average main character, Toru Watanabe, and his more dashing and charming friend, Nagasawa, that left a deep, deep impression on me. Both Watanabe and Nagasawa are loners, offbeat characters, who have little in common with their peers, including the books they read. When Watanabe comments on Nagasawa's favorite authors (Balzac, Dante, Joseph Conrad) not being very "fashionable," Nagasawa replies with: "That's why I read them! If you only read books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. That's the world of hicks and slobs. Real people would be ashamed of themselves doing that. Haven't you noticed, Watanabe? You and I are the only real ones in the dorm. The other guys are crap." --- Of course, this is a work of fiction, and in the world of fiction, a character can be rude and declare the rest of the world crap... Even so, I think there's merit in reading things nobody else is reading. So, my question to you... let's maybe help each other find books that are not on Amazon's best-selling list or worse, on the New York Times' best-selling reads. And to keep things from going out of control, let's stick with books that taught you the most about marketing, selling, doing business, or writing in general. Even if the books weren't marketed as such. I'll start 👇